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USA - California - Napa - Napa Valley

Cabernet Sauvignon

Producer Notes

If you adhere to the premise that great wine begins in the vineyard, then you have to admire the influence David Abreu has had on the ultra-premium wine industry. His impact began in the 1980s when he founded Abreu Vineyards after graduating from the Viticulture and Enology program at UC Davis. His reputation was enhanced through the success of his vineyard management company, and he became one...
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Score

Drink Dates

The 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon Madrona Ranch (90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Merlot) exhibits a saturated purple color in addition to a gorgeous bouquet of espresso beans intermixed with licorice, incense, blueberries and blackberries. There is more tannin in the unusually austere finish, but the wine is remarkably complex, and should be exceptionally long-lived. There are 500 cases of this beauty, which should be at its finest between 2006-2025.
This is the wine of a genius who refuses to make any compromises. For example, even though I thought it was outrageously delicious, Abreu declassified his 1998 Madrona Ranch Cabernet because it was not up to his personal standards.

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Community Tasting Notes
average score of 96 points based upon 4 reviews

Delicious dark berry fruit and casis after two hours of air. Well balanced and showing complexity of fruit, secondary flavors. Tannins are resolving and ending with a long finish. Still has a long life ahead.

Some people complain about Abreu?s pricing, but no one can take issue with the quality of wine in the bottle. Other than some funky bottles from the 91 vintage, I have never been disappointed with any wine from Abreu Vineyards. Made by Ric Forman, this wine receives white glove treatment all the way through to bottling. Raised in 100% new French Taransaud oak and bottled unfined and unfiltered, this wine is one of the greats from the '99 vintage. Thick, rich and tannic but with more than enough extract and power to offset its rather stern structure (a hallmark of many '99 Cabernets). Loads of espresso and dark fruits churn throughout the wine?s extremely long finish. Oak is well integrated and one would be hard pressed to believe the wine was exposed to as much new oak as it was given the oak?s integration. While impressive to drink now, the wine really needs 15 years to ameliorate some of its tannins and show all it has to offer.

WinePosts

A flawed bottle may be affected by cork taint, heat (maderized), oxidation, or excessive sulfur. Additionally, some people consider wines tainted by Brettanomyces (Brett), a non-spore forming genus of yeast, a flaw although there is much controversy surrounding the subject.

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Drink date is averaged using VinCellar members' most recent start and end drink date submissions for this wine.